Hello.
Let me introduce myself before we begin.
My name is Bladezzkiller99, I've co-written this story with Oakbasil and Heliorisk.
This has been written a long time ago, we've sadly not had the drive to continue it since, but I felt the need to preserve it here, because I think what we've written deserves to be seen by people, rather than to be forgotten.
So far we had written together 3 times, all with months in between.
I have kept pretty much everything the same, only doing some minor grammar and spelling fixes. If the pacing of the writing seems off, please keep in mind that all 3 of us were new to writing pretty much anything. If any criticism comes up about the character I'll try to relay it to their respective person.
One last thing: Sometimes the characters mention a previous event, or AN talks about a 'Prequel', sadly most of these are either gone, or is a lengthy mess of gibberish I somehow had the foresight to save before the Discord's channels got purged. I'll try to piece together a sort of chapter from it, but it's going to be a few hours work.
But now, I apologise for this lengthy foreword, let's begin.
Characters:
Max Colman : Bladezzkiller99
Radtke : Oakbasil9562647
Lillis Skane : Heliorisk
Act 1: 'A Survivalist, an Explorer and a Rescue pilot walk into a bar…'
A man walks into the seemingly deserted bar, hoping to catch up with local rumours.
The man is slim and looks somewhat scruffy, like he just crawled from under a dumpster, with unkempt, medium-long brown hair and a woodcutter's beard.
His amber eyes are laced with bags, as if he hasn't slept in weeks. His sickly-pale skin not helping to reassure anyone that he isn't just ill.
He wears a large dark-brown trench coat with various pockets and padding sewn all about it over his standard-issue pilot suit, along with a Cowboy's hat dangling from a kevlar line around his neck.
He looks around, seeing nobody at the tables nor behind the bar. Guess the place got abandoned since his last visit. As he walks up to the liquor rack to see if something remained, he thinks back to the days where it would be packed with others, and more lively than the now burnt-out commodity market below.
'Sigh' "I should've been more careful back then, not given in and blown most of my chances away." he says. Hopping over the bar, he sees an intact bottle among its broken brethren, "Hm? Latvian Brundy. Hell, it might be a cheap knock-off, but hey, anything'll do."
He takes the liquor and some plastic cups that were stored inside the cupboards, along with a few empty bottles for entertainment, and walks up to a set of tables closest to the smashed in glass overlooking the docks and takes a seat. As he sits there, occasionally throwing a bottle out the window, he quietly reminisces back to those past lively days.
A couple of hours pass in relative silence, when suddenly;
"It's been a while since someone's come to this bar," a voice muses, the newcomer walking through what used to be the main door of the bar. It had been destroyed in a struggle a few months ago, but the locals never knew more than that. The newcomer's fairly tall. Short black hair, blue-green eyes give a stark contrast against a casual white jacket, with the top red half extending over the sleeves, mixing with a black, leathery fabric. It looks to be custom-made as on the back there's a big red A, with under it writing saying 'Atlas Corporation'. He jovially introduces himself; "I'm Radtke. If we've met before, I apologise for forgetting. It's been a few months out in the black for me, so I've mostly forgotten the names of the previous regulars."
The man looks up drowsily at first, as if he was sleeping away in a stupor when Radtke arrived, but as he wakes up it shifts to surprise. "Hmmm? Oh!", he exclaims as he almost falls off his chair, "I didn't expect anyone to be here after... Well...", his eyes glance at the burnt-out pad below, but recovers quickly and stands up to greet the arrival, a somewhat forced smile on his face. "Anyway, The name's Max, Max Colman, pleasure to make your acquaintance." he gives a half-hearted wave as he moves back towards the bar, looking for some more 'survivors'. "Want a drink? Can't guarantee it though, the rack is either smashed or empty, but a few bottles persist here and there."
"Hm? Ah yeah, I remember that incident. I think it's about damn time I got a drink, you wouldn't believe the shit I've been through. Thanks for the offer." Radtke smiles and takes a seat, after grabbing a glass from behind the bar
"Oh? So what's out in the black? Rocks? Don't tell me there's Ice of all things?" the man dramatically asks and briefly chuckles, "Ah, here we go. Wuthielo something something, can't make it out, the label's ripped off." Max opens it and checks the inside, "Heh. We're in luck, it's half-full." and pours his and Radtke's glass halfway.
After the bottle's empty, Max simply throws it out the smashed window, making it shatter on the husk below.
As the both of them take a moment to savour the... 'borrowed' liquor, they look out the window to the station. Most of its derelict, some sections completely scrapped like the con-towers. It's a squatter-grounds for all kinds of life; Crime-lords, criminals, murderers, honest people in a bad situation too. A large patch-job seems to have been made in one of the docks, big enough to fit an Anaconda, but the paint and damage on the surrounding docks make it too hard to determine what number it had. As the both of them sit there, the air is sporadically filled with gunfire, screaming and... 'pleasurable' moans, further reinforcing what a cesspool of criminality it has become.
AN Bla: (To others: Feel free to join in, just don't make your arrival unappropriate. Make it fit in with the general theme of disrepair and criminality)
'sigh' "Much more than just rocks and ice, but criminals and anarchists. It's been a few months since I lost my only crew member. So I took my dropship, made her a makeshift explorer ship, and took a trip to a nebula.' Radtke sighs, not noticing the subtle flinching of Max, and takes another drink. Radtke looks out the 'window' to see that dropship on a pad, missing a wing or two. He chuckles again, before asking "I figured it was worth coming back here after that. What have you been up to then, eh Max?"
Max chuckles as he takes another sip of the... questionably tasty drink. "Heh, I can sympathise, I used to have a couple of friends on-board. Ever heard of a place called Hawkin's gap?"
"Never been there myself, but the name sounds familiar." He mused. "I assume it is of some importance?"
Max snorts, "Importance, yea. As important as a ceramic vase in orbit of the sun." he chuckles at his own joke, Ratke not in on the joke gives him an odd look, "Sorry, in-joke. But, no. Place used to be a bundle of outposts and research sites. I, along with the friends I mentioned, were tasked for data-retrieval of the on-site data." He takes a shaky breath before continuing. "Ever EVA'd to perform repairs, or to 'Space-walk' to another ship? The feeling that place gave me was just like that; Creepy, Dread, but most importantly with an added bonus feeling of the cable snapping behind you." he says, shifting a bit, "Place is just about at the 20kly mark from Sol, no clue what in the hell they were doing out that far from anything else, but at the time it was just another job." A moment passes as he recollects his thoughts about the mission. "We first went to 'Alpha site', cheesy name, I know. We thought the same thing. Place was abandoned, micro-meteorites had disabled most of the capsules, so we had to bring our own gear, which we already were planning to do, but hey." he shrugged.
Shuddering at the memory of space-walking, Radtke silently nods. "That already sounds morbid. Again assuming, but there probably wasn't much interesting in alpha, huh? Guessing another micro-meteorite wreaked havoc while you were inside?"
Max scoffs, "Hah, no. I'd wish. Then at least we could get out of the place for valid reasons other than the good old 'gut feeling' I had back then." he chuckles morbidly, "No, place was abandoned. As I said, micro-meteorites had done their job fabulously, but there were some things that couldn't be explained." he sighs, knowing the oncoming scepticism was coming, "We found the data, sure. It was right below the empty astronaut suit that seemed to have been strangled and hung onto the comms station with a glass-fibre cable." he deadpans in a chipper tone.
"Empty?" Radtke stares in disbelief for a second before muttering "I've seen fucking aliens in person, an empty spacesuit shouldn't be this unbelievable."
He can't help but grin either at Max's tone. "Continue, my friend." as he finishes his drink
"Yes, an empty suit that seemed to have been strangled. Excuse me for being creeped out." he flippantly says, "That was pretty much everything at Alpha site, to be honest. We made way to the other bases and found the same thing, but in greater quantity; Empty suits, either wired up to make it seem like they were strangled, or crushed by base equipment. We even found one that seemed to be squashed below a container, with only a hand sticking out." He continues, "Data made no sense either. Could've been that it was encrypted, but for an outpost this far out? Any rescue op would've had to have an on-hand decrypter with the company's codes on hand to figure out what the hell'd happen."
"God, must've been the entire goddamn crew's suits either floating in proximity, with cables surrounding their necks and helmets or crushed beneath things. Some were miles away, showing the same damage, minus the cabling." he morbidly continues. "Hell, even when we left each place it seemed just... unrealistic, you know? Like it was one of the horror holo-vids that are so commonplace nowadays."
"I can't even imagine the horror. Shit like that makes the mind race. What could've happened out there? a targeted attack? An infection? Aliens?" Radtke shudders again. "It's like that story about the generation ship. They started hearing a voice somewhere on the ship before going their numbers started going insane and committing genocide aboard the ship. Looking out what used to be the window here, it doesn't seem like this place is headed for good either. Kinda makes you wonder where the controlling faction is, eh?"
"Oh that one's easy, whichever one has the most blackmailing material, explosives and guns. Ships too, but... well... their use is kinda limited in-station." Max replies, after which he stands back up and searches for some more liquor within the desolate bar. "Everything is kinda like the first World war, you know, back on earth? Bogged-down trench fighting with no real reason as to how it all started. Kinda like my experience with the Elektra system actually" he muses, "Hell, I'd make a bet that if the jacked-up meatheads had formed a coalition of sorts, they'd have taken over this system alrea-" he continued, brushing aside some empty bottles to grab... something? "Huh? A flyer?" It was a half-torn flyer for the exact same bar's grand opening 6 months prior. "Hah, (puts on jovial voice) '- welcomes you to the opening of 'The Super Nova' on 2-06-3304', that wasn't such a long time for this place to fall to shit."
"Hell, I remember that day. I was one of the first hundred people in the bar. They gave us all little shot glasses to commemorate the event! I had it sitting on the dashboard of my corvette." With that last sentence, Radtke's enthusiasm dies down, before he continues "But that's gone now. And fair analogy, It truly does seem as if this were the first world war, just much more localised. Who would've thought that with how much humanity has expanded amongst the stars, our inter-factional events seem to have only sped up with distance, when we all expected the opposite."
Max chuckles, "The more things change, the more they stay the same. The more we want to stay the same, the more changes." as he continues his hunt for the elaborate 'free liquor'.
"Too true." Radtke chuckles as well before he gets up to search for something in the fridge. The place seemingly never lost power, so he's hoping the food is still good.
But as he opens it up...
"Fuck, empty."
Max laughs out loud for a moment. "You truly expected there to be anything left in there? In this place?"
"Nothing wrong with being hopeful, haha. But you're right, in a place like this? I don't know what I was expecting"
"Now me? I expected there to be mould, a lot of mould. And rats, rats too."
"Ah, yeah. Rats. You see them plenty out in the docks area."
Pulling out a nutribar from his pocket, he laughs. "These things are shit, but if you're starving, it'll keep ya alive. Fancy one?"
"Yea, sure.", he grins for a moment, "(In a snobbish voice) Are you shure this thing is fibre-free? I can't take any fibres, it's bad for my beautiful pale skin." and promptly burst out laughing.
Laughing along, Radtke adopts the same snobbish tone and says "Not only is it fibre-free, it's non-GMO and gluten-free" He barely finishes before breaking down into a fit of laughter
"Ahahaha, oh god my sides." placing a hand on the counter to stabilise himself he continues to use the voice, "Is it fat-free as well? And what about my- srk, my peanut allerg-ahahaha!"
"Oh Lord hahaha" he fell down into a chair, tears streaming down his face as he gasps for breath. After a moment passes, Radtke tosses the nutribar over to Max, and begins to tear into his own.
A feminine voice comes from the doorway as a slightly slim, 6'2 platinum-blonde lady, with sunglass black for eye color comes through the doorway. She appears to be wearing a black jacket, with red trimmings, white gloves and federal insignia's painted white onto it. "...Hey, are you boys decent? I hope there's room for one more in this joint. Also, I hope you guys saw the No Throwing notice before you came in."
As he catches the bar, Max takes notice of the newcomer, "Of course I noticed, but that figuratively went-" points at the busted window "-out the window?" he chuckles.
"I've been here for half a minute and I already want to leave, that's a world record honey." After pushing her hair back, she extends for a handshake. "Lillis Skane, Search and Rescue."
"Max Colman, independent freelancer. Pleasure." as he shakes her hand.
Radtke, lost in his head, jumps as he sees the newcomer. "Ah! Apologies. I'm Radtke, Bounty Hunter. Pleasure to meet you."
"Now hello, I must say you two darlings are mighty-fine lookin'. Can I get you anything, on me?", Lillis asks as she exhales on her glasses lens and promptly wipes with her sleeve.
Laughing, Radtke says "I appreciate the flattery, ma'am. If you can find anything behind that bar that we haven't found yet, I'll gladly take you up on that offer."
Max, taking Radtke up on his proclaimed 'challenge' says "I'll try to find something, sure. No guarantees that it's something... appreciative." Max says as he dives back below the bar.
In an very out-of-place faraway voice Max says "Nothing but empty bottles down here, although it looks as if... Nope, more empty bottles." as he continues to scavenge the underground space for stuff.
"Damn, what a shame. Oh yeah, I forgot! Let me run to my ship, I guess now is as good of a time as any." As he rushes out of the bar, oddly enough, through the broken window.
"So!" Max shouts in an even farther away voice than before, "What brings you here Miss Skane?!" echoes it from behind the bar.
"Well, I'm a woman of simple taste - I see the word 'Bar', I'm going in there!" Lillis burst out laughing, slamming the counter. "Ahhh, aside from that, sometimes you need a break from some of the things you see doing what I do."
"Yea, I get that, but why here of all places!?" Came the faraway reply.
"Damn, you sure there isn't a cave down there honey? Am I going to need to come down there myself? I heard through the grapevine that this was to go-to place for sitting for some shooters, although that may have changed recently, hm?" Lillis states as she glances around the destroyed room and perches on a mostly intact stool.
Landing hard on the catwalk below the window, Radtke makes a mad dash towards his dropship. Inside is some Old-Earth Vodka that he was only able to get through some massive amounts of string pulling. 'Heh, working for Atlas Corp still has it's perks'. He laughs to himself, as he runs towards his ship's dock. Making his way inside, he tears away the storage crates behind his chair to reveal a hidden compartment. After entering the pin and Iris scan, the compartment opens to reveal three pristine bottles. He ponders for a moment before grabbing one bottle, and stashes it away in his backpack. Drawing less attention to himself, Radtke takes the back route up to the bar, taking care to slip past any of the unfavourable likes.
Lilith looks as Radtke runs "You know, that guy is not only fast as all hell, but he flies a fine specimen of a Dropper". After a moment's contemplation, and not hearing anything from the man, Lillis peers over the inside of the counter. "Are you ok down there, Max was it?"
Max pops up from the overhead counter, probably a bit startlingly, "Yep! Found some beer, basic stuff, but hey, it does... the... job?" he pauses,
"Hey wait... How'd I get up here?" Max ponders as he hangs from the overhead counter.
"Hey, I-" tripping over the door frame, he takes a tumble startled by Max hanging from what appears to be the cupboards above the bar.
"Jesus, how long have you boys been here? The goods here can't be that strong..." Lillis ponders after almost falling off of her stool backwards following Max's ambush.
"Ah, sorry. You guys okay?" Max asks both of them, seeing as he startled the both of them from his unintended surprise.
As Lillis goes to help up Radtke, she exclaims "I think he'll live, I didn't think I'd be rescuing people in an abandoned bar as opposed to wrapped-up shipwrecks on dusty planets!"
"So Max, freelance huh? How's that working out for ya'll?"
"Well, the pay's usually good, but it usually gets me into pretty weird situations. Kinda like now actuall-" he gets interrupted as the cabinet's door finally gives in and drops Max to the floor behind the counter. "I'm okay!" Max says as he shows a thumbs-up from behind the bar.
Finally making his way back in the bar, "I'm good. Nasty spill that was, and with him just dangling there?...Yea."
"Well if I'm here to pay you for this service, you's got another thing coming darling! I hope your ships have a pretty cutting-edge Flight Assist!" Lillis roared as she wipes a tear from her eye.
"Ahh, glad you are here to drink another day friend."
"Flight-assist?" Max mumbles to himself from the floor, "Oh so that's what Nigel's been bugging me about. I thought he was fine piloting the ship himself." he muses as he stands up, backside of his duster now filled with dust, charred wood and glass.
"Anyways, lady and gent, look what I have for us!" As he pulls out a bottle of vodka so large, he has to two-hand it. "I pulled big favours for this, but I have more in my ship so why not share with new friends"
"Hah ha! Compensating for something honey?!"
"You wound me hahaha" Radtke says as he walks off for a bit after placing down the bottle next to the bar.
Lillis rests her head in both of her hands on the bar counter, "So where are you from Max? Get around much?" she asks Max as Radtke walks off in search of something.
Chuckling along, Max replies "Kinda, it comes with the job of doing the odd-jobs." Max grins, "But those are the things that get us out there, isn't it?" he astutely comments.
"But I'm from Zhao 6, in the Zhao system. Born on-planet, but grew up on the station Maupertuis Dock orbiting it. Nice place, stay away from the shuttle services there." he comments a bit off-handedly, hostility to something there masked behind it.
Noting the subtle hint in his voice, Lillis stops to think for a second. "Huh... I have a team member from Zhao - my most recent member, Ms. Romi McKnight. Do you know her by any chance?"
"Hm... Romi... Romi... I think there was a girl living on the station in C block with that name, never heard of the McKnight name though. Perhaps we've met, but it was only once or twice as I made the loading bays my home back then." Max reminisces back on his childhood and teenage days.
"I'll have to ask her next time we go on another rescue call. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't know her, lass always goes on about being a nobody back then." Lillis comments absentmindedly, tinkering with her walkie-talkie.
"Hah, sounds more like me to be honest with you." Max chuckles about memories past, "So, where you be from?" he asks curiously.
Back from who knows where, Radtke grabs himself a seat and sits off to the right of the two, waiting to rejoin in the conversation
"I'm from Moffit Town in the Zeaex system myself.", as Lillis gets up on the counter and lays down, doodling in the wood with a pocket knife. Max raises his eyebrow at the action, but Radtke simply doesn't mind it.
"As am I, friend. Who knew one could get so lost looking for the bathroom! As for me, I'm from Cubeo, but I was stolen into imperial slavery at a young age. I managed to break out with the help of some new Commander."
Lillis bolts upright and shoots glances between the two others. "Well I'm glad I have the privilege to be talking to you sir, one thing you two boys should know about me is that I have special language to associate with those damn Imps. I'd be wise not to expose you two darlings to that on day one."
Noticeably a bit uncomfortably, Max replies "...Eh, right." with a bit of scepticism on his face, amber eyes not leaving Lillis, as if what Lillis just said was uncomfortable for him to hear.
Hearing a digitised mumble emanating from under Lillis' jacket, she reaches for her radio.
"That's fine, I haven't associated myself with those scum in forever. And sorry, what was that?" not noticing how Max slumped a bit at hearing that.
"Well well, I was wondering when we'd have a customer. ...Or a hundred. A tourism Beluga just emergency-landed on Lambda 1. I need to run - fast." Lillis near-falls off of the counter and radio's in to her team to prepare.
"Darlings - it was a pleasure. If you ever crash and set on fire, perhaps you'll get to meet the girls."
"I'll give ya a call if that happens, hope you don't run into the snobby types!" Max calls after her, still somewhat nervously.
"Best of luck!" Radtke shouts as she disappears behind the doorframe.
"She's quite the character, eh Max?" He stated, bemusingly
A bit awkwardly, Max says "Yea, sure. A bit... passive aggressive towards the Imps, perhaps?" he carefully asks Radtke, sipping on the earlier found beer.
"A bit, yeah, that did seem to be the attitude. Hopefully it's only a front." Radtke pondered
A ship painted White and Yellow can be seen taking off from a nearby pad, the remaining duo both give their 'so long' gestures, Max giving a two-fingered salute and Radtke giving a lazy wave, as the craft flies though the port into that cold, starry night.
Smoothing out the previously nervous tone, and looking for a subject-change, Max says, "Yea, but you can't blame 'er, both the Feds and the Imps got blood on their hands in this whole damn 'faction war'…"
"Tensions certainly have been high... But as of right now, we're in independent space. As bad as it sounds, we should miss the majority of the blowback should it reach the boiling point" he replies
Max scoffs, "Independent space? Yeah right. I'm giving it 3-4 months tops before they come and try to duke it out."
As the two inhabitants of the bar stray in silence after the back-and-forth banter pauses, two Red&Black painted, former security Eagles lift off from the mostly-intact landing pads near the entrance. They seem not to be outfitted for any space-worthy flights, so it was a good gamble that they were for internal 'security'.
The duo watches as the two Eagles fly over a couple of sections, when suddenly the Eagles start taking fire from the surface of the station. One of the inbound shots lands true and disables one of the shoddy craft, leaving the other Eagle up in the air with a target. The explosions from the Missile pods reverberated all the way back to the pub, knocking some more glass loose and down to the metal below.
"Independent space just means that there isn't a faction that either is strong enough, or wants to deal with whatever goes down in sectors such as this..." Max says solemnly as he watches the other craft perform a dive to get out of a rocket's path, this causes the rocket to hit the other side of the station, no doubt lighting up another unintentional gang war between the two factions, all the more proving his point.
"Truly it is a tragedy to see this place fall into such disrepair. I remember a time when independent used to mean exactly that, strong enough to not need the guiding hand of a superpower. Times have definitely changed." Radtke replies, with a mixture in his tone of defeat and acceptance.
He presses a button on his wrist device to send his dropship inside the hangar, lucky enough to get one that had recently been maintained, and with a few metres of scrap metal between it and the ships, Radtke knew that it'd be safe from the external drama. He sighs before pouring Max and himself another shot. "If to nothing else, then at least let this shot be to our current health" as he raises it in a cheers
"Hah! Now there's something to cheer for." Max bemusedly says as he raises the drink. "To life, and all the shit it's full of?"
"To one hell of a ride." Radtke smirks, wholeheartedly agreeing with the sentiment
"Hahaha, agreed. Kompai!" Max cheers as he drains the drink in one go.
...And consequently coughs his lungs out, not at all expecting the strongness of the drink. "Eugh- Kuch- Uhg- Kah! That- 'Cough That's a strong fucking drink r- urk r-right there.'" as he coughs up his sentence.
After a bit more coughing, "God- 'Cough' Goddamn, what's in that stuff 'Cough, cough'?!"
"huuuuh that my friend, ugh, is Old-Earth Vodka. They make it the same way they have since the 20th century. You can't find this unique flavour and strength anywhere else in the Galaxy." Although he's more used to the strength, Radtke never could quite get over the burn.
"It's made with either corn, wheat, or potatoes" he adds
"Potatoes? People make stuff like this out of those? Goddamn. I think I might actually respect that." Max replies after calming his coughing fit. "Kinda reminds me of what Mihra usually took though..." he more says to himself unconsciously.
"I know, I was a little shocked when I found out about it the first time too. Alcohol is some interesting fun stuff" Radtke chuckled
"Hah, you don't say. That actually reminds...me...of- Oh fuck. Cover, now!" Max replies, then hurriedly seeks cover as that last Eagle that was still afloat comes nearer and nearer to the Bar's blasted-out viewport.
"Wait, what's happe- What in the fuck?!" Radtke dives behind the bar, pulling open the floor door and shouting "In here!"
As Max dives over the bar into the open hatch, the aforementioned Eagle lets loose it's payload of missiles.
"Oh fuck, oh god damn, motherfucking fuck. This is like goddamn Elektra all over again!" Max shouts as he helps Radtke slam close the hatch.
Time seems to slow down as the two struggle, trip, and slide past each other to get as far inside to safety as possible, reverberations constantly upsetting their balance. "How the fuck did he spot us?! I thought the ECM I had in my pocket would've cloaked us on the sensors!" Radtke spouts in a panic. "Last time I trust anything from fucking Kremainn."
"Kremainn?! Of course it's shit!" shouts Max as some shrapnel of the barstool, that 10 minutes before held a lady, embeds itself into the spot right behind him, pinning a part of his coat to the wall, narrowly missing a chrome canister. "His stuff's usually junk, but I don't think this guy's gunning for us specifically! Just another one of those trigger happy assholes!" he continues as he rips out the remains out of his duster's, now somewhat frayed, flaps before he gets stuck, placing the aforementioned canister in another, (mostly) undamaged pocket.
With having to jump over the bar, and noticing what just happened to Max's duster, Radtke says, "Fucking hell, that was close. If I see that asshole again when I'm in my ship, oooh boy is he gonna get it." Radtke pats himself off, realising his bottle is now gone. "Ah damn it, and there was still so much left too!"
"I'll give ya a replacement, now we gotta goddamn move it before it comes back around for another round of fun!" Max says as he tries opening up the hatch...
It's goddamn blocked. "Goddamnit, alright, we gonna have to find another way out before we are turned into wall paint."
"Ah fuck, of course it's blocked. Maybe we can do that trick you did earlier?" Radtke recalls Max appearing on the cabinet
"Assuming this place is maze-like, we might even be able to make our way to the outside of the bar instead of back inside. Bars are always full of weird secrets like that." Hardly even believing himself, Radtke is throwing anything at the wall to see if it sticks
"Uh... I have no goddamn idea how I did that. And I searched this place for a good 5 minutes for some beer when that lass was around, I think it was this way?" Max points at a crushed vent opening "...Or not." with Radtke wondering who'd look for Beer in a vent.
Max suddenly realizes something "Wait! The lass! If that fucker out there buggers off and we're stuck here she might help us! At least, once she's done with the snobs that is..."
At this revelation Max realizes something else; "Ah goddamnit, how can I forget?!"
"Ah shit, yeah! I forgot about her! And uh... What's wrong?" Radtke questions
With a sullen and defeated mood, Max turns to Radtke and asks; "Do you have any turrets on that ship of yours so we could make a break for it? If not I got another alternative."
Radtke thinks for a moment, before pressing a few buttons on his wrist device. "I..." Dramatic pause "I do now. They're only laser turrets, but they're better than nothing"
"Seems like sending her to the hangar wasn't such a bad idea after all!"
"Hah, have you seen the patchworks these guys are? It'll do just fine." Max reaches into his coat, pulling out a small tubular device. "Got a Flare here. It's not gonna do much, but it'll distract them somewhat. You ready for this?"
Bla: (This is gonna be a conjunction action scene.)
"True enough. And not like I've got any better ideas. Let's do it" Radtke nods.
Oak: (Ooh, fun)
"Got it, FIRE IN THE HOLE!" with that shout Max points out the device out of one of the small holes in the hatch, sending up a small, bright ball of red light, distracting the incoming Eagle.
Sensing the opportunity, Radtke slams into the hatch once, twice, three times before it comes up enough for the two to sneak out. Radtke tosses the ECM towards the eagle, praying it caused enough disruption to make a break for it
As the two make a run for cover the Eagle, although somewhat distracted by it's overloaded sensor systems and the flare to it's left side that it mistook for a slow-acceleration rocket, still attempts to make a chaingun-run, as it depleted it's rockets in the battle before and the initial strike.
Through some stupid miracle, the Eagle had blown away some of the debris in front of the door they had originally entered in. "Down this way!" Radtke trips and rolls towards the door, as thankfully the overloaded sensors cause the miniguns to fling bullets in any direction but the two(edited)
As Max runs to the door, he curses and lets out a scream of; "This seriously is just like fucking Elektra!" as he dives through the door frame.
"Close it! Close it! Close it goddamnit!" shouts Max, as he impacts one of the dumpsters that were opposite of the entrance.
"There's barely a fucking door" Radtke screams back as he closes all three wooden planks left of the beaten door, bouncing off the same dumpster, and running through the corridor close behind Max
As they run Max shouts back "Alright, we got a bit of time. Whoever that was that just tried to fucking spray and prayed us to death can't reach us here, but their buddies sure can. You got any kind of weapons on you to defend yourself?!" he shouts/asks Radtke as they make their way down the corridor through several bulkheads and passing a couple of 'innocent' looking bystanders.
"Or, hell, a way out of this dump?!"
Bla: (Wish we had some blueprints or something, then we could actually simulate running through those places.)
"I've got a pistol, but that's it!" Radtke yells back. "A way out? The ship maybe, but that'd be a very fucking long run to make it to from down here. Take a left up here!"
Oak: (If only, it'd be so fucking cool to do that)
As Max is about to turn left, a group of people come running up from the opposite direction (the right), with guns drawn. Expecting our duo had to do something with the earlier explosions they open fire, gunning down a couple of terrified bystanders in the process. "Fuck! We got assholes behind us, keep running!" Max shouts as they both run along the corridor, headed for the station's sector B docks according to the sign on the wall, paint leaking off of it.
Bla: (Gonna divide up the docking bays into sections, 1-10 = A, 11-20 = B, etc, etc.)
Oak: (Sounds like a plan)
"How far to the ship?!" Max asks.
Radtke rips the pistol out from his holster inside his jacket, and starts firing back as he dashes down the hallway. Suddenly, a bullet rips through the sleeve, causing Radtke to stumble before regaining balance. "Ah Fuck! Uh, about another 500 meters, then a hard right!" he calls out
As Max sees Radtke's clothing getting hit, and hears how far the ship is, he shouts; "Fuck, okay I got an idea, gonna have to bloody find it... first... though..." as he rummages through his pockets, as some bullets fly overhead, dropping an impact-firecracker and nearly dropping some other oddities before- "Ah! Got it! Whatever you do, don't inhale the yellow stuff, it burns a bit!" he shouts as he drops a similar canister than the one minutes before, that starts beeping on the ground.
"You got it!" Radtke takes a deep breath before holding it in and jumping over the canister
As Radtke and Max make it down the hall, the canister explodes a second after the mobster group passes, not hitting the group in its fullest, but still causing some members of it to start convulsing and drop to the ground.
"Nerve agents! Fucking love that stuff when it isn't used on me!" Max gleefully shouts back, no doubt throwing up some flags and pissing the remaining mobsters off.
"Aha, fucking glorious! That's gotta hurt." Radtke laughs before taking some pot shots at the remaining mobsters
"I bloody hope so! That stuff costed me a couple of fu-" Max shouts back, as his right leg gets hit by a bullet, although not being impeding, it still fucking hurt. "Fuck! Nevermind that, keep running!" as they turn a right in the T-section.
Even though he knew it was coming, Radtke had to push himself off of the wall. His right arm, his shooting arm took quite the beating, because of how he landed. Wincing a bit in pain, he catches back up to max. "My ship is up ahead, to the right! Landing pad 19!"
"Got it, pad 19!" as he shoves an unfortunate dockworker that had seen better days, out of the way into one of the small alcoves.
Going around the corner, he sticks his hand out for Radtke to latch onto as he heaves him out of the way of incoming gunfire. "C'mon, we got little time!" as he pulls out a couple more flares, blindly firing them off around the corner to distract the remaining persons from the group.
Radtke summons his dropship up after being pulled around the corner, already preparing himself to take over the controls once again. Feeling the rush of air from the hangar, he makes a sliding dive towards his now rising ship
After firing off another flare down the corridor, Max makes a dash to the ship along with Radtke.
"Caius! Open the main door, passcode Seven Six Niner Five One Two!" A large chunk of the side panel on the dropship lifts up, revealing a minigun mounted on the inside. Radtke grabs Max by the arm and spin throws him inside, before jumping inside himself, and dashing towards the cockpit
"Whoa, what the fuc-" was all Max could bring out, before faceplanting straight into the top of the bulkhead due to the throw, knocking him out cold with a great, big 'Duuuuuung~', akin to a shrine's bell.
"Ah shit, that's not what I meant to do." Radtke groans after realising what he just did. Slamming the ramp closed,he initiates the startup sequence. "Drive one, start. Drive two... Start. Verticals, engage!" He slams the throttle, clipping the eagle who had been shooting at them earlier. This sends it into a flat spin, and the dropship barely skims the airlock.
Pulling a hard turn right outside, the weapons deploy and all power is diverted to shields and weapons, preparing for the worst should the Eagle decide to come out and 'play'.
As the wait continues, the Eagle didn't come out (since it was a shoddy piece of crap, fixed up just about enough for internal 'work'), instead a couple of fightercraft came out, consisting of a couple of former sys-sec Viper mk 3's.
"Sorry Max! I know you're unconscious, but fuck this shitty situation." Radtke yells into the back room, targeting one viper and unleashing a hail of laser blasts from the new-bought turrets, which surprisingly didn't break down, before maxing the throttle and engaging in combative manoeuvres.
After a little bit of combat and manoeuvring, both vipers are defeated. Thankfully no targeted bounties, but Radtke still flies about 25 km away, disables quite a few modules, and engages silent running. After about five minutes of observation, the heat internally seems to be hovering around 30-40%, keeping the inside of the ship at a comfortable temperature. Radtke then goes to the back by Max, pulling the pale man's beaten and bruised body from the rafters, grabbing another bottle of vodka, and takes a perch on a random cargo rack about 15 feet away from the unconscious man.
Bla: (End RP, to be continued?)
Oak: (For now, yeah, if that seems like a good place to end it. Hopefully when we start again we can get Helio back in more)
Bla: (True, allright then:) END OF ACT ONE
Allright, that's a wrap.
I'm saving that one, gonna be hell to remove all the GT's and timestamps, but hell to it.
Hel: DIRECT [Lillis Skane]: You can count on it honey.
Oak: I gotta say, that was a pretty good act one, especially since it's been so long since the prequel
Bla: And the 'Prequel' was pretty much just proving grounds, setting up basic guidelines and such.